Deformable figure employable for production of animated cartoon films



Feb. 22, 1938. w H. HAUGHTO N 2,109,422 DEF'ORMABLE FIGURE EMPLOYABLEFOR PRODUCTIONOF 'ANI MKTED CARTOON FILMS Filed Oct. 17, 1936- INVENTORWILFRID HEimy HAIIIGHTON H15 Attorneys Patented i-eb. 22,1938 a UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE Wilfrid Henry Haughton, Carshalton Beeches,

' England Application October 1-1, 1936, Serial No. 108,238

In Great Britain November 2, 1935 3 Claims. (01. 46-156) This inventionrelates to the production of cinematograph films of the animated cartoonkind. In theproduction of such films it is usual to prepare the subjectto be photographed from 5 a great number of drawings, each a littlediil'ercut to the other, so that by making a filmoi' each of thedrawings successively, an animated cartoon is produced. This entails atremendous amount of work and-time, as a very large number of separatedrawings have to be made.

The object of this invention is-to produce an animated cartoon filmwithout the necessity of I preparinga number of drawings, and whereby abetter effect is obtained.

According to this invention, the process of producing the animatedcartoon fil n consists in employing a subject such as a doll, puppet,toy aniinal or the like constructed so that parts can be moved tovarious positions, the parts being moved between each exposure or batchof exposures, so that in the finished film, the efi'ect of animation isobtained.

. The doll, puppet, toy animal or the like is,

preferably constructed from lead .or other soft metal wire or strip ofsuitable thicknesses the foundation of thedevice, the wire or stripbeing encasedin asuitable padding or wrapping, and the whole" enclosedin a covering shaped to the form of the device to be constructed.

The foundation of lead or other soft metal wire or strip may be made uptosuit the form ofthe device intended to be constructed, and such wiremay be employed for use with the earsl'nose and mouth of the device.

The invention will be clearlyunderstood from the following descriptionaided by the accompanying drawing which illustrates one example of adoll or puppet for use in' producing an animated cartoon fllm, and inwhich, Figure 1. is a '40 front view, and Figure 2 a side view showingan outline of a doll or puppet with wire foundations.

. l 'igure 3 is a detail view of wire foundation of the hand as shown atFigures 1 and 2. and Figure 4 is a detail view showing a wire foundation45 of a foot for an animal or the like. According to the example shownon the drawing, the puppet is built up on a foundation of lengths oflead wire onstrip bent or curved tothe required shapes for the puppet tobe produced.

50 y'One length i is employed for the head, dy,

' legs and feet, such length is curved at about dzvayfiof its length toform the foundation I for ead, the lengths being fastened together bywrapping a piece of tape 2 around same to form 85 the neck I". The twoportions of the length are then curved outwards from each other and thentowards each other to form the body portion I,, the two portions thenbeing straight for a distance and each bent at an angle to form a loop ifor the feet, and bent back to lie against the .5 straight portionsforming the foundation I for the legs, the ends of the length beingfinally curved so as to overlap each other, at the lower part of thebody, and are secured together by a wrapping of tape 2'! around same.The-portions l0 of the length forming the legs i= are also securedtogether by wrappings of tape 2 l A second length of lead-wire or stripis employed bent on itself at about mid-distance to form the back orspine 3, the ends being curved 1 outwards and downwards to form theshoulders I and arms 3'', .the shoulder portion 1 being secured to thetop of the body portion 1 of the other length by wrappings of tape 4. I

The foundation of each hand consists of a length of lead wire or strip 5bent upon itself to form the foundation for the fingers and thumb 5, thetwo ends of the length being secured tothe end of the arm portion 3 bypositioning the ends of the length 5 next to the end of the g5arm,portion 3 and securing by a wrapping of tape 6. 'Preferably thedoubled over portions forming the fingers and thumb 5' are also eachwrapped with a piece of tape '1.

' In the case of say a monkey, instead of the 30 loop i, the feet couldbe formed separately similar to the hands andconnected to the legs Ibytape. v j

A third length of lead wire or strip 8 is employed for the features ofthe puppet, such length 35 being bent or curved to form the mouth 8',nose 8", eyeelids 8 and eye-brows 8 the constricted or contacting partsbeing secured by wrappings of tape 9.

Other lengths of lead wire or strip suitably shaped may be employed forthe ears.

Each wire orstrip is encased in asuitable-padding. unwrapping (notshown), and the-whole enclosed in a covering ll of suitable flexiblematerial, such as a textile material shaped and ornamented toform thepuppet to be constructed.

By the employment of lead wire or strip as the foundation of the device,the body, -legs, arms,

- features, and other parts of the device may be bent to any desiredshape or contour, the alterations being efiected by pressure of thefingers of a person without fear of the wire breaking. The wrapping oftape on the fingers. enabling the fingers tobe curved without a sharphead which might damage the wire or strip, also employing u tape forconnecting the parts together enables lengths of the foundation insteadof only parts.

The features of the puppet, may be changed by bending the foundation forthefeatures, for in- I stance, one or both eye-lash portions 8 can bebent downwards stretching the fabric in under the eyebrow portions '8 soas to give the appearance of closed or partly closed eyelids, or theeyebrow portions 8 can be more sharply curved upwards, likewise theother parts of the foundation can be bent or curved to vary theexpression as desired.

The covering H is preferably stitched to the foundation at the featureportions, so that the covering is caused to'move with the foundationwhen'adjusted to various expressions.

For other dolls or would be suitably shaped to conform to the shape, ofthe doll or puppet required, and with animals a further length of leadwire or strip would be incorporated for the tail;

The background for the film may be drawn on sheets of paper, andnon-movable articles such as houses, trees, etc. may be either drawn ormodels can be employed, the device is altered by bending apart for eachsuccessive exposure, for instance, if the device illustrated is to beshown walking, the legs I would be moved a short distance for eachexposure, so that a length of film wrapped around all the I puppets, thefoundation produced in a simple, quick and comparatively cheap manner ascompared with animated cartoon films produced from a very large numberof separate drawings.

What I doclaim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patentis:--

1. A doll, puppet, toy animal in producing an animated cartoon film,comprising a skeleton foundation of soft wire or the like for the bodyand limbs, other soft wire or the like for the foundation of facialfeatures of the head, a suitable padding for the skeleton foundation anda covering shaped to the desired form of the device to be constructedand enclosing the whole, whereby in addition to adjustment of the bodyand limbs, changes in facial expression can be manually obtained. A

2. In a device of the character described, a

flexible body, a head on said body, a flexible foun-.

adjustable facial feafoundation comprising dation forming manually turesfor said head, said soft wire or the like bent to roughly simulate saidfacial features, and a covering for said foundation.

3. In the device set forth in claim 2, said foundation comprising asingle strip of wire bent upon itself a plurality of times to producemouth, nose, and eyelids.

WILFRID HENRY HAUGHTON.

or the like for use

